1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motion limiting device and a motion limiting method that limit motions of a robot.
2. Description of Related Art
A robot is known that determines whether it has come in contact with an obstacle near the robot based on environmental information around the robot and positional information of the robot to avoid the obstacle (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-064215).
For example, there may be an unobservable area in which it is impossible for the robot to check for the presence or the absence of an obstacle since the unobservable area is behind the robot itself and it is thus difficult for the robot to avoid the unobservable area. In such a case, the robot enters the unobservable area. At this time, when an obstacle is present in the unobservable area, the robot may unexpectedly come in contact with the obstacle.